We are focused on identifying interventions to prevent any risk of brain injury with surgery and to help babies recover, heal and grow after heart surgery. Selecting these interventions would not be possible without the information we have gathered from our study babies to date.
Results from the CHD-MRI study include:
Newly acquired brain injury is as common before surgery as after
Acquired injuries most commonly take the form of small injuries to the developing white matter
Brain development is delayed in newborns with congenital heart disease
Moderate to severe white matter injury predicts motor impairment in infancy
We are finding that children with heart disease repaired during infancy, share many aspects of behavior and learning styles noted at school age in children born prematurely. Both groups score within the normal range on IQ testing, but are challenged by tasks that require attention, executive function and visual-motor integration. The information that we gain from seeing our study babies for neurodevelopmental follow-up testing is critical for our goals of developing interventions at the time of surgery and beyond. However, this information may also be useful for your child’s doctors and teachers, to help them determine if further testing is needed to create a learning environment that emphasizes their unique challenges and maximizes their learning potential. Although this information should not substitute for on-going health care visits and evaluation by your child’s pediatrician, we are happy to share results with physicians and teachers whenever this may be helpful.
We are pleased to announce that the findings from this study have led to the creation of a clinical program at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, The Healthy Hearts and Minds Program (H2M). This program allows us to follow all children that undergo cardiac surgery prior to one year of life with developmental evaluations by nurse practitioners, neuropsychologists and cardiologists.
For more information, please see our website: Healthy Hearts and Minds Program
Next Steps:
Our major current focus is to study older children with repaired congenital heart disease to further understand the developmental profile as our babies grow into children and adolescents. Importantly, we plan to obtain MRI pictures of the brain in order to understand the path of brain development from the newborn period to older ages. We hope to begin this phase of the study in coming months.